A fund with a fixed number of shares outstanding, and one which does not redeem shares the way a typical mutual fund does. Closed-end investment companies behave more like stock than open-end funds: closed-end investment companies issue a fixed number of shares to the public in an initial public offering, after which time shares in the fund are bought and sold on a stock exchange, and they are not obligated to issue new shares or redeem outstanding shares as open-end funds are. The price of a share in a closed-end investment company is determined entirely by market demand, so shares can either trade below their net asset value ("at a discount") or above it ("at a premium"). also called closed-end fund or publicly-traded fund.